USA > Vermont > The history of Vermont, from its discovery to its admission into the Union in 1791. By Hiland Hall > Part 22
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Mass. Com. Safety for April 29,30, and May 2, 3, 1775. Am. Archives, Allen and Arnold's letters relating to the capture, and letter of May 4. Allen's Nar. of his Captivity. Sparks's Life of Allen and of Arnold. Gor- don's Rev., vol. 2, p. 10-13. Ira Allen's, Williams's and Thompson's Vt. Bancroft, Hildreth, Lossing and Ircing's Washington.
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from other parts of the province. Among the whigs in both these bodies, the conservative element, representing the cautious and timid feelings of the wealthy merchants of the city, and the large land holders of the interior, extensively prevailed, and indeed exerted a controlling influence over their proceedings. Their cherished policy was of a mild defensive character, and it was not to be expected that they would countenance an attack upon the king's forts,, even though the necessity of their capture to the future security of the country might be quite apparent to others. The movement had consequently been necessarily made by more adven- turous spirits from other colonies.
When the party from Connecticut, on their way to Ticonderoga, reached Sheffield, they dispatched two messengers to Albany "to discover the temper of the people at that place," and to endeavor to obtain supplies of provisions for the expedition ; but the Albany committee, to whom they applied, declined to interfere, and wrote for advice to Mr. Low's committee at New York, from which, how- ever, no answer appears to have been received. The next day after the capture of Ticonderoga, John Brown was dispatched to Albany with a letter from Col. Allen to the committee at that place, inform- ing them of the surrender of the fort, expressing an apprehension of an attempt to recapture it by Gov. Carlton from Canada, and asking for "immediate assistance both in men and provisions." The committee declined to furnish any aid, but wrote again to the New York committee for advice, sending a copy of Allen's letter, and stating that Mr. Brown was " dissatisfied with their answer, and went away abruptly." These dispatches were received by the New York committee on the 15th of May, and forwarded to the Conti- nental congress, accompanied by a letter signed by their chairman, informing that body that the committee did not conceive themselves " authorized to give an opinion upon a matter of such importance."
The letter from the New York committee, and accompanying papers, reached Philadelphia on the 17th, and were laid before congress the next morning. Mr. Brown who had also arrived from Ticonderoga, was called before that body and gave an account of the capture of the fort, and of the state of affairs in that quarter. Whereupon congress adopted a resolution, which seemingly apolo- gized for the seizure of the fort, "by several inhabitants of the northern colonies residing in its vicinity," as a means of protecting their lives and liberties against " a cruel invasion from the province of Quebec ; " and recommended to the committees at New York and Albany, "immediately to cause the cannon and stores to be removed
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from Ticonderoga to the south end of Lake George, and if necessary, to apply to the colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut for such an additional body of troops as would be suffi- cient to establish a strong post at that place." The resolution also directed " an exact inventory to be taken of all the cannon and stores, that they might safely be returned," on the restoration of harmony between Great Britain and the colonies.
This resolve was not only timid in its character, but illogical, if not absurd in its terms. It sought first, to justify the seizure of the fort as a means of protecting the inhabitants of the colonies in its vicinity against " cruel invasion " from Canada, and then left those inhabitants exposed to the very evils they had thought to avoid by its capture, by directing the fort, and consequently the lake it was designed to command, to be abandoned. The post at the south end of Lake George, which it was proposed to fortify and defend, might furnish some sort of protection to Albany and northern New York, but none whatever to the New Hampshire Grants and the adjoining New England colonies, by whose people the news of the passage of the resolution was received with great surprise and dissatisfaction. Col. Allen, on being informed of the resolution, immediately ad- dressed an earnest remonstrance to the Continental congress, against the contemplated removal, in which he asserted that the abandon- ment of Ticonderoga and Lake Champlain, and the substitution of a post at the south end of Lake George, " would ruin the frontier settle- ments, which extended at least one hundred miles to the northward " of the latter place, and whichi consisted " of several thousand families in that part of country called the New Hampshire Grants ;" stated that the people in that territory, by the seizure of Ticon- deroga and Crown Point, had "incensed Gov. Carlton and the ministerial party in Canada against them," and declared "that should they after all their good service to the country, be neglected and left exposed, they would be of all men the most miserable." The assembly of Connecticut, and the provincial congresses of Massa- chusetts and New Hampshire also strongly protested against the removal, and the order was not carried into execution. The pro- posed measure was so plainly injurious to the cause of the country, as to excite a strong suspicion among the inhabitants of the New Hamp- shire Grants, that it was the sinister work of their old land speculating adversaries of New York to ruin their settlements ; the land claim- ant interest being strongly represented in the Continental congress by Mr. Duane, the Livingstons and others. This feeling also appears to have extended beyond that district. Capt. Asa Douglass
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an active and influential whig of western Massachusetts, who at the head of a company which he had aided in raising, was at the taking of Ticonderoga, in a letter to Gen. Washington, dated June 7, 1776, states that after the surrender of the fort, he was sent by the com- mander to Philadelphia, that on his way there he heard of the order of congress and viewed it " as the finishing stroke to New England ;" that when he arrived at Philadelphia he " carefully searched out the cause of it, and found the land jobbers were the foundation and efficient cause of it, and that he gave himself no rest till it was reversed.1
But to return to the forces at Ticonderoga, where the trouble with Arnold still continued. No sooner had the fortress surrendered than he again arrogantly claimed the command, but he was obliged to submit to the unanimous opposition of the officers and men; and the committee of war in order to put an end to his annoying assumptions delivered to Col. Allen a certificate, or commission signed by Edward Mott chairman, stating that "by virtue of the power given them by the colony of Connecticut " they had appoint- ed him to take command of the men to reduce the fort, and requir- ing him "to keep the command and possession of the same for the use of the American colonies until he should have further orders from the colony of Connecticut or the Continental congress." A copy of this commission together with an account of the capture and of the claims of Arnold signed by Mott chairman of the committee of war was immediately transmitted to the provincial congress of Massa- chusetts by the hand of Col. Easton. Arnold also wroteto the same congress, giving his version of the affair, but his pretensions to the command were not favored by that body. Arnold had however be- haved with bravery in the assault upon the fort, marching on the left of Col. Allen and entering the fortress side by side with him, and he seems to have " finally consented to a sort of divided control be- tween Col. Allen and himself, he acting as a subordinate, but not wholly without official consideration."
A few days afterwards Allen and Arnold formed a plan to make a rapid push to St. Johns, take a king's sloop that lay there and attempt
1 Colden to Lord Dartmouth, June 7, 1775. Mott's account of the expe- dition to Ticonderoga, and other papers, in Conn. Hist. Col., vol. 1, p. 165- 183. Am. Archives, vol. 2, pp. 459, 605, 623, 719, 721, 732-3, 895. Jour. Cong., May 18, and of N. Y. Cong., May 22, 25 and 26. Subine's Loyalists, titles, Low, De Lancey, Folliott, Hallett, Kissam, Walton, Yates. Sterens paper, 7776, p. 25-6. Secret Jour. Cont. Cong., vol. 1, p. 19. Bancroft, vol. 8, p. 79. vol. 7, p. 79.
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a descent on the garrison. For that purpose they armed and manned the schooner and bateaux which had been captured at Skensborough. Arnold, who had been a scaman in his youth, taking command of the schooner and Allen of the bateaux, they both set out to- gether upon the expedition, but a fresh wind springing up from the south, the schooner outsailed the bateaux, and Arnold soon reached St. John's where he surprised and captured the sloop together with a sergeant and twelve men. The wind now shifting to the north Arnold set sail with his prize, and met Allen with his bateaux at some distance from St. Johns. Allen who had with him about one hundred men determined to proceed and make an attack upon that place though informed by Arnold, that large reenforcements were expected there, and that his force was insufficient to hold it. Allen with his party effected a landing, but was attacked by a greatly superior body of troops, and was obliged to retire, leaving three of his men prisoners. By the capture of the king's sloop, which took place the 17th of May, the complete command of the lake was ob- tained.
The colony of Connecticut having been requested by the Continenal congress and also by the congress of New York to send a force to maintain the posts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, a regiment of one thousand strong, under Col. Benjamin Hinman, arrived there early in June to whom Allen at once gave up his authority. But Arnold persisted in claiming the command, which tending to produce difficulty and confusion, the Massachusetts congress, under which Arnold claimed to act, sent a committee of their body to inquire into the matter, who on the 23d of June, very much to Arnold's chagrin and mortification notified him that he was discharged from the service. 1
1 Jour. Prov. Cong. Mass., 696- 726. Life of Allen and also of Arnold by Sparks. Jour. Cont. Cong., May 30. Am. Archives, vol. 2. 724, 729- 731, 847, 850, 940.
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CHAPTER XIX. REGIMENT OF GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS AND INVASION OF CANADA.
1775.
Allen and Warner before the Continental Congress and the New York Convention - A battalion of Green Mountain Boys under their own ofli- cers to be raised - Coldness of the New Yorkers - Warner chosen lieu- tenant colonel over Allen - The corps joins Montgomery at the siege of St. Johns, and is posted in advance on the St. Lawrence - Allen sent by Schuyler and Montgomery as a political missionary into Canada - Raises one hundred men, and attempting to surprise Montreal is taken prisoner and sent in irons to England -Gen. Carlton on his way with one thou- sand men to relieve St. Johns, is attacked by Warner and his Green Mountain Boys, at Longniel and driven back, which occasions the imme- diate surrender of that post - Montreal is also abandoned to Gen. Mont- gomery - Honorable discharge of Warner's corps.
0 N the arrival of the Connecticut regiment at Ticonderoga, as before stated, the men from the New Hampshire Grants, who had been hastily collected together for a brief period and a tem- porary purpose, were discharged, and returned to their homes. Many of them were willing to enter again into the service, but the ill feeling which had long subsisted between them and the govern- ing authorities of New York, to which colony they nominally be- longed, was an obstacle in the way, which there was some difficulty in overcoming. On the 2d of June, Col. Allen addressed a long letter to the provincial congress of New York, in favor of the policy of an immediate invasion of Canada, and proposed " to raise a small regiment of rangers," which he thought he could easily do, " mostly in the counties of Albany and Charlotte, provided the congress should think it expedient to grant commissions and thus regulate and put the same under pay." And he added an apology for mak- ing the offer as follows. "Probably your honors may think this an impertinent proposal. It is truly the first favor I ever asked of the government, and if it be granted I shall be zealously ambitious to conduct for the best good of my country and the honor of the gov- ernment." To this letter no answer appears to have been returned, and there was little prospect that a satisfactory arrangement could be made with that body.
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Under these circumstances, a council of officers was held at Crown Point on the 10th of June, at which it was recommended to " Col. Ethan Allen, Capt. Seth Warner, and Capt. Remember Baker" to go to Philadelphia and obtain the advice of the Continental congress, in relation to their peculiar position, and that of the men who had served with them. Allen and Warner (Baker not accompanying them), were the bearers of a letter from Maj. Elmore of the Con- necticut forces, chairman of the council, to the president of congress, which on the 23d of June, being sent into that assembly, was read ; whereupon, "information being given, that two officers who brought the letter were at the door, and had something of importance to communicate, ordered, that they be introduced, and they were intro- duced." In the presence of this august assembly, Allen and Warner also found themselves standing face to face with their old land claiming antagonist, Mr. Duane, from whom they might have antici- pated some opposition to their wishes. But if any were made it was ineffectual. Their manly bearing and intelligent answers to such inquiries as were made of them, evidently produced a favorable impression on the body. When they withdrew, provision was made for the payment of "the men who had been employed in the taking and garrisoning of Crown Point, and Ticonderoga," and a further resolution was adopted as follows :
" Resolved, That it be recommended to the convention of New York that they, consulting with Gen. Schuyler, employ in the army to be raised for the defense of America, those called Green Mountain Boys, under such officers as the said Green Mountain Boys shall choose."
With a copy of this resolution and a letter from Pres. Hancock to the convention of New York they repaired to that city. The letter of the president was as follows :
PHILADELPHIA, June 24, 1775.
Gentlemen : By order of the congress I enclose you certain resolves, passed yesterday, respecting those who were concerned in taking and garrisoning Crown Point and Ticonderoga. As the congress are of opinion that the employing the Green Mountain Boys in the Ame- rican army would be advantageous to the common cause, as well on account of their situation as of their disposition and alertness, they are desirous you should embody them among the troops you shall raise, as it is represented to the congress that they will not serve
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under any officers but such as they themselves choose, you are desired to consult with Gen. Schuyler, in whom the congress are informed those people place a great confidence, about the field officers to be set over them. I am gentlemen your most obedient humble servant,
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JOHN HANCOCK, President.
To the members of the provincial congress New York."
In New York, Allen and Warner, as might perhaps have been expected, found a hostile feeling prevailing against them, which there was considerable difficulty in removing. Most of the land claimants, with whom they had been for years in sharp and succesful controversy, resided in New York city, where the convention was sitting, and were strongly represented in that body. The names of Allen and Warner, connected with charges of lawless violence, had there been made familiar by the publication of often repeated official rewards and proclamations for their apprehension and punishment. There was moreover a law on their statute book, enacted only the previous year, declaring them outlaws by name, and consigning them to death on being apprehended. The altered condition of the New York government, together with the eminent services they had recently rendered the colonies by the capture of the northern forts, had made them entirely fearless of this penal law, but the prejudice against them was almost too strong to allow them to participate in the common struggle for the liberties of the country.
After a delay of some days, the resolution of the Continental congress and the letter of its president were, on Saturday the 1st of July, read in the convention, and it was "ordered, that Col. McDougall, Mr. Scott, and Col. Clinton be a committee to meet and confer with Messrs. Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, and report the same with all convenient speed." The journals do not show that this committee made any report, but on Tuesday, the 4th of July, the consideration of the resolve and letter of the Continental congress being resumed, and the congress being informed "that Ethan Allen was at the door and desired admittance," it was moved by Mr. Sears, the early leading radical whig of New York city, that he " be permitted to have an audience of this board." After debate, the question was taken on the motion, when it appeared that nine counties having eighteen votes were in the affirmative, and three counties having nine votes were in the negative, the three negative counties being New York, Albany and Richmond, where
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the land claimants had the greatest influence.1 Whereupon Col. Allen was admitted, and Capt. Warner at the same time; who, after being heard, withdrew ; whereupon, an order was made by the con- vention as follows :
"Ordered, that in consequence of a recommendation from the Continental congress, a body of troops not exceeding five hundred men, officers included, be forthwith raised, of those called Green Mountain Boys ; that they elect all their own officers except field officers ; that Maj. Gen. Schuyler be requested to forward this order to them and receive from them a list of such officers as they shall elect, to be communicated to this congress ; and that Gen. Schuyler be further requested without delay, to procure the sense of those troops concerning the persons who will be most agreeable to them for field officers ; and to make inquiry, and upon the whole advise this congress what persons it will be most proper to be appointed as field officers to command those troops; that the said troops when raised, be considered as an independent body, their field officers taking rank after the field officers of the other troops to be raised by this colony for the continental service; that their corps of officers consist of one lieutenant colonel, one major, seven captains and four- teen lieutenants; and that the general be furnished with blank warrants, to be filled up by him, agreeable to such election, as above mentioned."
Gen. Schuyler, under whose direction this corps of Green Mount- ain Boys was to be organized, had been chosen a major general, while in attendance on the Continental congress at Philadelphia, and did not reach Ticonderoga until after the middle of July. On the 27th of that month, "the committees of the several townships on the west side of the range of Green mountains," met at Dorset and designated by name two field officers, seven captains and fourteen lieutenants for the battalion, in accordance with the resolve of the New York convention. In the selection of field officers, Allen was left out, Seth Warner receiving the nomination of lieutenant colonel by a vote of forty-one to five, and Samuel Safford was named as
1 Isaac Sears from the first resistance to the Stamp Act in 1765, to the breaking out of the revolution, was the most active leading whig of the city of New York, but at the election of members of the Provincial congress in April, he was probably thought to be too much in favor of bold measures, to represent the conservative interest of the city and was not chosen. At an election held, however, on the 8th of June, such progress had been made in the public feeling that he was elected by a great majority. Jour. N. Y. -Cong., June 9, 1775.
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. major.1 By the failure of Allen to receive the nomination as com- mander of the corps he was much disappointed and mortified. He had been foremost in procuring the necessary action of the congress at Philadelphia and of the convention at New York for raising the battalion, and had left with the latter body a list of officers for it, in which his own name was inserted first and afterwards that of War- ner for field officers. In a letter from Allen to Gov. Trumbull, dated at Ticonderoga, August 3d, he speaks of the action of the committees as follows :
" Notwithstanding my zeal and success in my country's cause, the old farmers on the New Hampshire Grants, who do not incline to go to war, have met in a committee meeting, and in their nomination of officers for the regiment of Green Mountain Boys who are quickly to be raised, have wholly omitted me; but as the commissions will come from the Continental congress, I hope they will remember me, as I desire to remain in the service." In a postscript he adds : "I find myself in the favor of the officers of the army and the young Green Mountain Boys. How the old men came to reject me, I cannot conceive, inasmuch as I saved them from the encroachments of New York."
That Allen rendered most important services to the inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants in their land title controversy is undoubt- edly true, and perhaps it was not too much for him to say that " he saved them from the encroachments of New York," for it is impos- sible to determine what might have been the result of the dispute, without his efficient aid. He had studied into the character of the New York claim of title to the lands in the territory, had collected historical and documentary evidence of its weakness, and had, on various occasions, wielded his rough, unpolished pen against it, with marked and decided effect. In the collisions with the speculating claimants and government officials, he had also acted a prominent, and often a leading part. But Warner had likewise rendered im-
1 The officers of the battalion named by the convention of the committees
at Dorset, certified by Nathan Clark, chairman, were as follows : Seth Warner, Lieut. Col.
Samuel Safford, Major.
Captains- Weight Hopkins, Oliver Potter, John Grant, William Fitch, Gideon Brownson, Micah Vail, Heman Allen.
First Lieutenants-John Fassett, Ebenezer Allen, Barnabus Barnum, Tille Blakely, Ira Allen, Gideon Warren, David Galusha.
Second Lieutenants-John Nobles, James Claghorn, John Chipman, Nathan Smith, Jesse Sawyer, Joshua Stanton, Philo Hard.
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portant services, and it might be presumptuous to say that his assistance could have been safely dispensed with. Both Allen and Warner were distinguished leaders in the controversy, but they were different men, and fitted to occupy different positions. The bold and defiant language of Allen in his writings and conversation was well calculated to encourage the timid, confirm the wavering and inspire confidence, and his personal courage cannot be questioned. But his vanity was great, always prompting him to claim at least all the merit he deserved and sometimes rendering his manner overbearing and offensive ; and he was not free from rashness and imprudence. Warner, on the other hand, was modest and unassuming. He appeared satisfied with being useful, and manifested little solicitude that his services should be known or appreciated. He was always cool and deliberate, and in his sound judgment, as well as in his energy, resolution and firmness, all classes had the most unlimited confidence. As a military leader he was perferred to Allen. What- ever Allen might have thought on the subject, there is no doubt whatever that the selection of Warner to command the regiment was in accordance with the general feeling of the inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants. It may also be safely said that the wisdom of their action seems to have been confirmed by subsequent events.
The list of officers selected by the convention of the committees was immediately sent to Gen. Schuyler at Ticonderoga, and by him transmitted to the New York congress, by which body it was ordered that warrants for the captains and lieutenants should be forwarded to him, to be filled up with the names of such as should agree to serve. Gen. Schuyler was alco authorized and requested to appoint the field officers, when such a number of men should be raised as in his opinion should make it necessary. This was on the 15th of August. On the 23d, Schuyler wrote the congress from Albany, that Warner had been with him, that he had delivered him six sets of warrants, (one captain declining to serve), and that he could not possibly comply with their request to appoint the field officers, assigning as the reason, that " the peculiar situation of these people and the controversy they had had with this colony or with gentlemen in it, rendered the matter too delicate for him to determine." On the first of September, the letter of Gen. Schuyler was taken into con- sideration, and after debate the question was put, whether the con- gress would proceed to nominate any field officers for the regiment of Green Mountain Boys, when it was decided in the affirmative by a vote of fifteen to six, the counties of New York and Queens not voting, for the want of a sufficient number of members present.
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